On Thursday, BART police will propose a system-wide security dragnet for the Bay Area’s transit system. BART police are asking the board to approve the project in concept and authorize trials at Lake Merritt and Civic Center BART stations.

No privacy policy. No civil rights impact assessment. No data storage and access rules. No biased and inaccurate facial recognition for BART.1

We need a strong public showing on Thursday morning to tell BART that this will not stand. If work or other committments keep you from coming to BART's board meeting on Thursday morning you can use this email action to share your thoughts with them before Thursday.

BART is planning to use the same platform that was proposed as the “brains” of the Domain Awareness Center (PSIM). The plan calls for 2000 CCTV cameras to be converted to IP-based for geospatial tagging and advanced real-time video analytics, likely facial recognition technologies already proven to be inaccurate and biased.

BART has sat on its hands and delayed the adoption of a surveillance technology ordinance approved by its tech commiitee in 2016. Now BART Police are attempting to rush through an aggressive new surveillance network with only 72 hours notice.

The Bay Area has rejected wall to wall surveillance every time it has reared its head.

There are plenty of common sense things BART could do with $15-25 million dollars to improve security on the transit system without treating every passenger like a criminal suspect.

The last thing Nia Wilson would want is her death used to increase the high-tech harassment of Black and Brown people.